The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
ZIFA’S move to increase referees fees has been met with murmurs of discontent from most clubs who are going to feel the pinch of the rise.
The fees went up by varying amounts for the different leagues with fees for Premier Soccer League matches now pegged at $270 for the centre man and match commissioner while assistant referees will get $240 up from $180 and $160 respectively.
Fees for Division One referees and match commissioners doubled going up to $100 from $50 while the assistants’ fees is now $80.
Division Two referees and their assistants will now be getting $50 and $40 respectively while those in Division Three are now taking home $40 and $30. Referees doing duty at juniors and schools matches will be paid $30 with assistants getting $15.
Women’s teams in the Premiership will have to fork out $40 for a referee’s services and $30 for her assistant while Division One teams are set to pay $30 and $20 respectively.
Clubs have questioned the wisdom of increasing fees at a time most teams are finding the going difficult.
Talen Vision chief executive officer Brian Moyo said the fees will have a negative impact in the running of most teams considering the difficulty teams are facing.
“We have seen teams such as Tsholotsho opting out and Zim Leopards asked to go to the lower division because of the costs and now with the added costs we are likely to see more teams struggling while others will fold.
“Many struggled to pay fees last year and we are going to see a continuation in the trend considering the increase. We are likely to see the regions failing to end the season with a league of 16 teams because of the huge costs,” said Moyo, whose team plays in the Zifa Southern Region Division One League.
Ajax Hotspurs director Siphambaniso Dube questioned why Zifa did not consult before coming up with the fees as they needed to balance between the needs of the referees and the abilities of the teams.
“We need to balance the equation because it does not make sense to just have fees going up when teams are going to fail to pay the match officials.
“Zifa should have come down to us and asked our opinion because as it is these fees are just steep for most clubs, the economic situation is not favourable and we are going to struggle to pay these fees,” he said.
“It’s like they did not take into consideration the affordability but they just set the fees. It is a sad tendency which has seen authorities just milking the clubs without due consideration.”
Zifa Referees Committee chairman, Bryton Malandule defended the fees saying the referees have costs they need to take care of that include course fees and uniforms.
He also said it was critical to maintain referees’ integrity by paying them reasonable amounts.
“The fees were last reviewed in 2014 and when you look at them we are just taking into account the inflationary pressures that have been experienced in the country over the past few months and it is not really that much. Before they were pegged in US dollars but now the figures are in RTGS dollars, a sign that we did not even try to match the interbank rate.
“The referees have to attend three courses a year, they have to pay for these so it’s some of the costs that clubs have to consider,” said Malandule, who added that the fees were approved by the Zifa board.
Malandule revealed they are working at securing funding to pay referees instead of the fees being a burden on the clubs and hope the potential sponsors they have engaged will come through.
